Susan Condrick
Susan Condrick
Title: Vice President, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty
Age: 48
Experience: 15 years
Susan Condrick draws on her background in history to sell homes in and around the Belmont/Cambridge market. She pores over the details of a home while she’s walking through, listening to the owners’ stories, and often researching building permits, the local Historical Society and other sources to knit a narrative together. She says the stories help connect prospective buyers to the property for many of the same reasons the sellers originally did. This year, the approach helped her list a couple of large historic Cambridge homes.
Q: Have you always worked in real estate?
A: No. I worked at Lotus in Cambridge while I was going to school, studying history. Eventually that rolled into a full-time job. I was there from 1989 to 1995. Then I went to a startup for a while and then back to Lotus for a few more years. I was working with third-party companies that would develop what we would consider apps today for Lotus Notes. I focused on marketing and relationship development. It was a combination of things, similar to what I do today, in a way.
Q: How did you get started in real estate?
A: I’ve always been interested in real estate. I actually picked my college based on the beautiful staircase they had in the admissions office. It was gorgeous. Funny enough, they’re now really expensive condos in Back Bay. So, I think real estate has always been in my future.
I got my license in 2001. I have a friend whose husband was in the business and he was buying properties in Allston and Brighton, renovating and renting them, and I was always checking out his construction sites. I loved it. I think I just fell into a high-tech career; I didn’t choose it. I got a little tired of it. It was during the dot com bust and I think there were a lot of people who were leaving to become real estate agents, which happens a lot. In my case, it really fit.
During my first year, I focused on rentals. It wasn’t glamorous. I worked for my friend’s real estate agency in Allston/Brighton. It was tricky because a few months after I got there, September 11th happened. It was a tough time in the market. It was one of those things where you realize if you can make it in a down market, you can make it in any kind of market. It happened again when I became much more active as an agent in 2007 and I became a sales agent at Coldwell Banker in Belmont. The market had dried up. I was there four years and then I moved over to Hammond. I’ve been at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty for a year now.
Q: You’ve listed a couple of large, historical Cambridge homes this year. Did you intentionally shift your business in that direction?
A: It’s been a bit of a pleasant surprise. I’ve used my history training in every listing that I’ve had, it’s just that lately there have been a few that are a little more newsworthy. In general, every house has a story. Different agents approach selling houses in different ways, and there are a lot of ways to do it successfully. For me, I feel like I need to understand the story of the house. It could be the story of how the owners fell in love with it, the transformation they’ve made, or what it’s meant to them. This year, they’ve been a little more high profile, but I’ve listed historic properties in the past. It makes it a little more interesting and people really want to know the story. I find it more interesting. I fall in love with each one of these houses and their stories, but in the end, it’s about the price and negotiation and getting to the closing table. I never lose track of that. Stories just bring the house to life and make it more enjoyable for everybody, and I love sharing them.
People who are looking to buy in Harvard Square are inherently interested in the history. I listed a home on Gibson Street that was a worker’s cottage and I found out the street was named, not after the man who owned and developed the land, but his gardener. That’s a neat part of the story. Those kinds of things are interesting. They’re a little more high profile here.
I currently have a listing on Brattle Street which has received quite a bit of press, which has been wonderful. In preparation for listing the property, I discovered that Lockwood de Forest, an important figure in the 19th century American Aesthetic movement, provided the hand-carved teakwood moldings, brackets, panels and mantel in the home. That’s just one of hundreds of details that tell the story of this house. In researching this gentleman, I’ve been fortunate to meet some of the many wonderful MFA curators, as well as art historians who have spent time at the house, one of whom who has asked me to collaborate on an article about this discovery, as it is believed to be the only known de Forest commission in the Boston area.
Owners selling their historic homes often bought them for the same reason I love them. Listing historic properties has always been part of my business, but the reality is every house has a history and I’m always excited to piece the next story together.
Five Things Susan Loves About Duxbury (her home town):
1.) Crossing the Powder Point Bridge (in either direction)
2.) Giving directions via “the set of lights”
3.) A windy day at Howland’s Landing
4.) The mooring at Bluefish River
5.) Every visit to FarFars (the mocha frappes have never let me down.)
